CHEYENNE — The Wyoming House of Representatives and Senate approved mirror budget amendments Monday that would allow the state to send $2 million to Texas or provide resources like personnel to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
If the amendments in both chambers are, in fact, identical, and no additional changes are made to this amendment on third reading of the budget bills, the allocation will be automatically adopted in the state’s 2025-26 biennium budget and would not be up for negotiation in a joint conference committee.
On both sides of the Capitol, the budget amendment to House Bill 1, “General government appropriations,” and Senate File 1, “General government appropriations-2,” included language explaining that the $2 million expenditure would provide “direct financial aid to the state of Texas or for other expenses incurred by the state of Wyoming in supplying appropriate resources to the state of Texas for the purposes of securing the United States border.”
Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, introduced the amendment to the Senate’s budget during second reading on Monday. Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, introduced the House amendment.
Hicks referred to the testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray, appointed by former President Donald Trump, before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security last November. Wray told federal lawmakers that the border crisis is a “national security threat” that’s turned every state into a border state.
Hicks tried unsuccessfully last year to send money to the Lone Star State. Senate File 166 would have set aside more than $5 million to pay for the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and for the removal of people who are not citizens in Texas, Arizona and Florida to sanctuary cities in other states.
Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, who voted against the amendment, said the $2 million was nothing compared to the “historic $321.3 billion budget” recently passed by the Texas Legislature. Nethercott read a letter from one of her constituents that listed their concerns over increased costs of property taxes, medication, food and so on.
The letter also addressed their issue with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Megen Degenfelder’s recent decision to refuse a federal program that would provide lunches to kids over the summer.
Gov. Mark Gordon has already used “hundreds of millions of dollars in his budget” allocated to him by the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee to send Wyoming’s own law enforcement to Texas, she added. The proposed allocation of $2 million is not only pennies compared to Texas’ budget, but is better off going toward solving Wyoming problems.
Michael Pearlman, the governor’s spokesperson, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle via email, “The governor knows that he currently does not have budget authority to pay to support border states, so this amendment would give the state and local law enforcement additional resources to help protect Wyoming people from public safety threats like fentanyl and human trafficking.”
Senate President Ogden Driskil, R-Devils Tower, who also voted against the amendment, agreed that the border crisis is a major concern, but Wyoming’s taxpayer dollars were better spent serving Wyoming taxpayers.
“Folks, we’ve had a shooting a couple blocks from the Capitol. We’ve got our own problems in the state of Wyoming,” Driskill said. “If we’re going to be fiscally conservative in the state of Wyoming, let’s put our dollars where they do the most work — inside our state.”
Republican Cheyenne Sens. Lynn Hutchings and Anthony Bouchard spoke in favor of the amendment. Hutchings recited Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that every state “shall protect each other against invasion.”
Bouchard said it isn’t enough for Wyoming to simply say they are in solidarity with Texas, and that the state should put its money where its mouth is.
“Bottom line is that talk’s cheap, whiskey costs money,” Bouchard said.
The amendment passed on a vote of 20-10 with one senator excused.
On the House floor, not a single lawmaker spoke directly against the allocation.
Angelos said that it is lawmakers’ job to protect “life, liberty and our personal property.”
“While the federal government is failing their basic duty to protect us, its citizens, it is the states that now need to band together and protect them ourselves,” Angelos said, adding that Gordon has made a public commitment along with 24 other states that Wyoming would stand with Texas.
“This is a small amount that they could use for expenses incurred to secure the border,” Angelos said. “Walls work. Open borders do not.”
Rep. Allen Slagle, R-Newcastle, was also listed as a sponsor on the House amendment. He said the role of government is to protect citizens, and with an open border, states need to “band together” to do so.
Rep. Dave Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, said that he “liked the idea of what is to be accomplished in the bill,” but there is more than one state to the south of Wyoming.
“It just seems to me that we ought to be sending our support to the state that we, the state of Wyoming, feels that needs to go to. It may be (Texas) but it also might be one of the other four (border states),” Zwontizer said.
The budget amendment including the $2 million allocation passed the House in a 51-10 vote.
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